Sunday, January 17, 2016

THE RISE AND FALL OF ISLAM

The Quran in Surah Ali-‘Imran (3) states that “The only
religion approved by God is Islam.” The Arabic word ‘deen’ essentially mean ‘way
of life’ rather that the restricted ritualistic meaning of ‘religion’.

This religion of strict monotheism is taught by all prophets
from Adam to its completion and perfection by Muhammad, the last of all
prophets. But, as it is wont with human beings, corruption and deterioration set
in and complete their work in after about 300 years (10 generations) to change
the original teachings. Thus, the monotheism of Prophet Moses became polytheism
in Judaism, of Prophet Jesus polytheism in Christianity, and of Muhammad polytheism
in Sunnism.

Fortunately for mankind, the last of God’s scripture, the
Quran, is divinely protected so that all
mankind can always refer to it as its guide. This divine protection lies internally
in the scripture in a mathematically awesome and impossible to imitate
structure called Code 19. This Code is stated in the Quran in Surah Al-Muddaththir (74), verses 30-31. The verses go, “Over it is
nineteen. We appointed angels to be guardians of Hell, and we assign their
number (19) (1) to disturb the disbelievers, (2) to convince the Christians and
the Jews (that this is a divine scripture), (3) to strengthen the faith of the
faithful, (4) to remove all traces of doubt from the hearts of Christians,
Jews, as well as believers, and (5) to expose those who harbor doubt in their
hearts. The disbelievers will say, ‘What does God mean by this allegory?’ God
thus sends astray whomever He wills, and guides whomever He wills. None knows
the soldiers of your Lord except He. This is a reminder for the people.”

The rise of Islam, beginning with the reign of Prophet
Muhammad in the Arabian Peninsular in early Seventh Century, within a short
time of only sixty years shot up to be the No. One power in the world, beating
the two superpowers of the then world, the Byzantian Empire and the Persian
Empire.

Historian Philip K. Hitti, in his book, History of the Arabs (1970), states, “If someone in the first third
of the seventh Christian century had had the audacity to prophesy that within a
decade some unheralded, unforeseen power from hitherto barbarous and
little-known land of Arabia was to make its appearance, hurl itself against the
only two world powers of the age, fall heir to the one -- the Sasanid – and strip
the other – the Byzantine -- of its fairest provinces, he would have
undoubtedly have been declared a lunatic. Yet that was exactly what happened.
After the death of the Prophet sterile Arabia seems to have been converted as
if by magic into a nursery of heroes the like of whom both in number and
quality is hard to find anywhere. The military campaigns of Khalid ibn-al-Walid
and ‘Amar ibn-al-‘As which ensued in al-Iraq, Persia, Syria and Egypt remain
among the most brilliantly executed in the history of warfare and bear favourable
comparison with those of Napoleon, Hannibal or Alexander.” (p. 142).

A Western philosophical historian, Robert Briffault, in his
epoch-making book, The Making of Humanity
(1919), after denouncing a conspiracy of silence by most Western historians
on the contributions of Muslim science to modern Europe, surmarised the contribution of Muslim science
to civilization, thus: “The debt of our science to that of the Arabs does not
consist in startling discoveries or revolutionary theories. Science owes a
great deal more to Arab culture , it
owes its existence. The ancient world was, as we saw, pre-scientific. The
astronomy and mathematics of the Greeks were a foreign importation never
thoroughly acclamatised in Greek culture. The Greeks systematized, generalized and
theorized, but he patient ways of
investigation, the accumulation of positive knowledge, the minute methods of
science, detailed and prolonged observation, experimental inquiry, were
altogether alien to the Greek temperament. … What we called science arose in
Europe as result of a new spirit of inquiry, of new methods of investigation,
of the method of experiment, observation, measurement, of the development of mathematics
in a form unknown to the Greeks. That spirit and those methods were introduced
into the European world by the Arabs.” (p. 191)

Muslim civilization lasted eight centuries. In that time,
Baghdad became the capital of the world and Europe became students at the feet
of Baghdad. When the rot set in, Europe took over the banner of civilization
and what is known as the European Renaissance began. Will Western leadership
last for ever? Only time can tell.
Already cracks are beginning to be seen.

The more important question for Muslim leaders to answer is
why the Muslim way of life, guaranteed by God, has collapsed, and how they can
rebuild it. To answer this all-important question, they must re-study the Quran
with a scientific methodology. I can suggest a few signposts.

Firstly, at a certain point in time, Muslim science froze and
deteriorated, due to wrong teaching of certain so-called masters. These were
made into masters by a new priesthood class adopted in imitation of medieval Hinduism
and Christianity. In Islam there is no priesthood class.

Secondly, at a certain point in time, a certain attitude of
fatalism developed in Islam due a new theology preached in accordance to hadith
teachings. Hadiths are essentially fabrications falsely ascribed to the great
name of Prophet Muhammad.

Thirdly, that new theology also
preached salvation in the Afterlife, in a nondescript Theologians’ Nirvana in
imitation of Bhuddism. This led to Muslim apathy in a life waiting for death.
At this point, roughly from the Fourteenth Century onwards, this false Islam
died, with the false Muslims.

Fourthly and lastly, to rebuild, the
Muslims must re-study the Quran (which is their and mankind’s book of guidance)
to find correct answers to their current plight. I have surmarised the
teachings of the Quran as “revolutionary, life-affirming and death-defying”. We must seek salvation in this life by
raising our soul to a higher level. It is this raising of our soul to a higher
level that is necessary for the coming Second Muslim Civilization.

About Me

(About Kassim Ahmad
By: M. Bakri Musa)
Kassim Ahmad is Malaysia's foremost thinker and philosopher. He grabbed national headlines in the 1950s with his dissertation on the characters of Hang Tuah (Perwatakan Hang Tuah), the Malay literary classic. In it he challenged the traditional interpretation and made the hitherto hero Hang Tuah as nothing more than a palace hack, and elevated the anti-hero Hang Jebat as the true hero, willing to kill even the sultan in defence of honor and principles.
Kassim was jailed for nearly five years under the ISA for daring to express openly his political views, an experience which he recounted in his book, Universiti Kedua (Second University).
Kassim again shook the Malay world with his "Hadith: A Re-Examination" in which he challenges the infallibility of the purported words of Prophet Muhammad s.a.w.
Except for an honorary doctorate in Letters conferred by the National University of Malaysia, the country has not seen fit to honor this great public intellectual.
June 2005